1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a way of safely carrying firearms inside a vehicle. This invention uses straps, connector devices, and at least one soft case for a long barrel firearm so that at least one long barrel firearm may be carried within a vehicle, that the firearms are readily accessible, and the firearms may be removed from the vehicle either inside the soft case or removed from the soft case for use.
2. Description of Related Art
In rural areas, gun racks are commonly seen in the back of vehicles, especially pick-up trucks or other vehicles which can be used off the road in hunting applications. Perhaps the most commonly seen gun rack is simply a standard wooden gun rack where there are two rigid parallel support pieces having a plurality of curved support hooks placed in alignment on the two vertical support pieces. A shotgun, rifle, or similar firearm is simply slipped over the upper end of the hook where its rests in the bottom portion of the hook and is supported there by gravity. Sometimes the hooks may be lined with a soft material like felt or rubber both to further secure the firearm in place and to cushion the firearm from scratches or other damage that might be caused as the truck is bounced by road bumps and hazards while the truck is in motion.
This standard gun rack has a variety of drawbacks. First, it is usually affixed to the truck so that it cannot easily be removed if desired. Second, it exposes the guns to view from the outside, making them a tempting target for a casual thief. Third, the guns are not as securely mounted in the rack as is desirable. For these and other reasons, a variety of devices have been proposed to remedy these perceived deficiencies in gun racks used in vehicles. For example, Jacobson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,102 proposes a one-piece spring-action bracket mounted to the seat of a vehicle by buckles. Cardenas, U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,969 proposes a metal gun rack secured to a seat by straps which allow a rifle to be mounted with a scope affixed to the rifle. This rigid rack folds for storage. Thedieck, U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,537 proposes a strap-like removable gun rack mounted horizontally with loops in the strap to hold the barrel of the gun while the vehicle floor supports the butt of the gun stock. Kolpin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,997 takes a different path where a gun case has means for attachment to a coat hanger-like bent wire support, which can then be used to support the gun case and the gun contained therein in a clothes closet or the like. Conceivably, the Kolpin device could be used to support a gun in a vehicle if there was an appropriate support for the open loop of the clothes hanger-like support device used in the Kolpin invention and room for the gun. Townsend et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,491 discloses a vehicle mounted gun rack. This gun rack is permanently mounted. It provides a locking mechanism to secure the gun in place in the rack. Pinkerton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,385 shows a gun rack with an electric gun lock keyed to the ignition of a vehicle. A variety of other rigid gun racks are employed to secure guns to the back of a support structure, usually the seat or rear wall of the truck. Examples may be seen in Calvin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,167,182; Rasbach, U.S. Pat. No. 2,797,033; and Campbell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,535,564.
Despite this earlier work none of the gun racks disclosed in patents or on the market are entirely satisfactory. Ideally a gun rack should be light, easily removed, and compactly stored when not in use. Secondly, it should require no, or very minor, modifications to a vehicle to be used. Third, it should give the owner options about where and how the rack would be mounted. In some cases, it might be preferable to mount to the back of the seat, in other cases to a front side of a seat for the vehicle, or to some fixed wall or support structure within the vehicle such as the back wall of a pick-up truck or the side wall of an SUV. Next, the rack should provide for safe storage of the gun so that the gun will not be damaged, scratched, bent, or broken in the event the vehicle is traversing over rough or uneven terrain, hits potholes in the road, or take such other maneuvers as may cause the gun to be bounced or bumped around. Next, the gun itself must be safely secured within the rack so as to minimize the risk of accidental discharge of the weapon. The gun should be easily retrieved from the rack when it is desired to be used. Finally, it would be desirable to have portions of the rack easily adoptable for use as a gun case whereby the gun may be easily carried while contained within the gun case, and then simply clipped into the rack when not in use.